21 December 2009

Some Points to Ponder in the Aftermath

In the wake of the Senate's ram-job passage of the abortion-funding, old-and-infirm-killing, unconstitutional government takeover of the health care of every American (and those foreign persons present on our soil), I have the following thoughts, randomly presented:

1. Should sell-0ut Ben Nelson's "compromise" language on abortion funding stick in the final bill, at what point will we as Catholic and other pro-life citizens have to ask the question, "Can I purchase this insurance in good conscience?" If the answer is "no", and I am not saying it is until the final language is known and thoroughly analyzed, am I prepared to be fined or jailed for my moral stance? Or will we just cave? Then Ben Nelson can call us sell-outs.

2. Will this vote finally, please, end the abusive love relationship the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops has with the Democrat party, and big government in general? This decades-long debacle has to stop. There are two analogies relevant here: one, the USCCB, the faithful and battered spouse, just keeps taking its punishment and hopes her bully husband will change his ways, all the while defending him to the neighbors; and two, the USCCB, the naive girlfriend who keeps getting cajoled into sacrificing more and more of her modesty in the vain hope that this last humiliating compromise of virtue will finally make the boyfriend love and respect her.

Persecution of the faith is already here. It will intensify. We need to remember that the true Spouse of the Church is Christ. He stands at the door and knocks. However many faithful Catholics who are left in this country are facing the prospect of fines, jail or worse in the coming decades. Will the Church not stand with them?

3. It is always good to remember that Christ's victory is assured. Assured. All we have to do is to be on His side to enjoy it when it is consummated. No earthly power can prevent this victory, and we must pray for courage, grace, and the accomplishment of God's will in our lives. I remember someone told me a few weeks ago that (I think) St. Ignatius of Loyola was asked in the light of some crisis of the time where was the safest place to be in the time of danger.

7 comments:

Anonymous
said...

Maybe the answer to question #2 is simple: The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops continues to align itself with moral principles versus a political party. And sometimes they see the ambiguous reality in which we live:

The USCCB remains a thorn in the side for Democrats (and Republicans) in terms of consistently speaking out for the unborn and always against abortion.

They also remain a thorn in the side for Republicans who think that having 30 million uninsured Americans is morally justified in the world's richest country.

The USCCB remains a thorn in the side to BOTH parties in also saying that any health care reform should ALSO include ALL people living in America, be they naturalized citizens or not. (Archbishop Burke is a huge proponent of this.)

The question is: "Is health care a right or a privelege?" Republicans tend to believe it is a privelege - something you should be able to afford no matter what your life situation is. Democrats and the USCCB believe it to be a (God-given) right.

The question the USCCB seems to be answering is: "Why should 35 million Americans be denied health care coverage in America?" To date, the USCCB hasn't heard a plausible answer to that question.

maybe we will, as a result of this, once again have Catholic hospitals in the US that are truly Catholic, not just in name only. think of the Catholic hospital built by Padre Pio in socialist Italy. maybe Christ is sick and tired of abortions being performed in "catholic" hospitals by "catholic" doctors. i was just wondering.

Why is it moral to force young, healthy individuals who currently choose not to buy health insurance to buy it or face jail time? As you know, this is what the House and Senate bills include.

This is the whole problem with the USCCB, they try to take the moral high ground when the question is one of political means to an end. Of course everyone wants health care to be affordable for all. But is that goal better accomplished with less govermment intervention and a strong free economy, or more government intervention with a weak economy due to perverse tax incentives? This is a question for honest debate about economics, not a moral question for the USCCB to ponder.

30 years ago the USCCB pushed the Humphrey- Hawkins full employment bill. I remember writing to them and stating this was an economic, not a moral question. In response they said I was correct and that they did not really support one particular bill. Now days they don't really seem to care or understand that distinction. At the time an excellent editiorial in the WSJ discussed how in trying to take the moral high ground on political issues, the USCCB was expending its capital so that no one would pay any attention to them when they there was in fact a moral question ( such as abortion).That is just as true today.

Timman, your points are excellent. But it seem like you are looking at this all as something new. "Persecution of the faith is already here."? It has been for a long time. Any American citizen who pays taxes gives money to planned parenthood, oversees contraception education, and from time to time, overseas abortion.

A Day That Will Live in Glory

Pray for the Four Cardinals: Burke, Caffarra, Meiser and Brandmuller

“You are the ones who are happy; you who remain within the Church by your Faith, who hold firmly to the foundations of the Faith which has come down to you from Apostolic Tradition. And if an execrable jealousy has tried to shake it on a number of occasions, it has not succeeded. They are the ones who have broken away from it in the present crisis. No one, ever, will prevail against your Faith, beloved Brothers. And we believe that God will give us our churches back some day."